Improving PageFlows

Improving PageFlows

Hi Guys,

I really like the work Steven did on page flows and want to see that
improve along with the rest of Grails.. so this thread is proposals on
what we have no and how it could be improved, Steven please approve or
veta any suggestions if you have time.

Few things at the moment the flow is defined with a builder like this:

RE: Improving PageFlows

What is absolutely crucial about web application is that you can
easily manage the 'pageflow'. This concerns not only the pages but
also actions, validations, forwards, etc.

Most recent attempts to make this simpler have failed
(e.g. Struts/JSP). They have made things even more complex.

The proposed improvements help much in making it easier to
create and read the pageflow. We also need some easy means to
visualize it graphically (like we did with the nodebuilder).
Is this still possible with the suggested improvements?

cheers
Mittie

P.S. my vision for the 'flow' is that a graphical representation is
rendered live on the server showing the workflow that the 'current'
page is involed in and nodes are clickable for jumping into the
sourcecode :-)

Re: Improving PageFlows

> What is absolutely crucial about web application is that you can
> easily manage the 'pageflow'. This concerns not only the pages but
> also actions, validations, forwards, etc.
>
> Most recent attempts to make this simpler have failed
> (e.g. Struts/JSP). They have made things even more complex.
>
> The proposed improvements help much in making it easier to
> create and read the pageflow. We also need some easy means to
> visualize it graphically (like we did with the nodebuilder).
> Is this still possible with the suggested improvements?

Yes my improvements are only to make the syntax more concise your node
builder should work and would be great if you were able to integrate
it into grails somehow (as a task like "grails draw-flows" or
something

>
> cheers
> Mittie
>
> P.S. my vision for the 'flow' is that a graphical representation is
> rendered live on the server showing the workflow that the 'current'
> page is involed in and nodes are clickable for jumping into the
> sourcecode :-)

Re: Improving PageFlows

Oh and the other thing is I think PageFlows and Controllers should be
aligned so that for example the same dynamic properties available to
controllers are also available in flow actions (this.params,
this.session etc.) plus any additional flow specific ones
(this.flowScope)

RE: Improving PageFlows

> Yes my improvements are only to make the syntax more concise your node
> builder should work and would be great if you were able to integrate
> it into grails somehow (as a task like "grails draw-flows" or
> something

Re: Improving PageFlows

+1.

The improvements look good. I think this will have a major impact on
the current implementation of the SWF integration which basically
happens in the builder.

On 12/16/05, Dierk Koenig <[hidden email]> wrote:
> > Yes my improvements are only to make the syntax more concise your node
> > builder should work and would be great if you were able to integrate
> > it into grails somehow (as a task like "grails draw-flows" or
> > something
>
> *hehe* great
>
> Mittie
>

--
"If you want to be a different fish, you gotta jump out of the school."
-- Captain Beefheart

Re: Improving PageFlows

It should actually be easier to implement then in controllers because
it is a builder.. it will still be a builder, but essentially the
closure will delegate to the builder .. I will have to have a close
look at how it works at the moment because it is obviously important
to make it threadsafe as with controllers ( still need to implement
prototype support to fix the dependency injection btw, I think I know
how to do this)

> +1.
>
> The improvements look good. I think this will have a major impact on
> the current implementation of the SWF integration which basically
> happens in the builder.
>
> On 12/16/05, Dierk Koenig <[hidden email]> wrote:
> > > Yes my improvements are only to make the syntax more concise your node
> > > builder should work and would be great if you were able to integrate
> > > it into grails somehow (as a task like "grails draw-flows" or
> > > something
> >
> > *hehe* great
> >
> > Mittie
> >
>
>
> --
> "If you want to be a different fish, you gotta jump out of the school."
> -- Captain Beefheart
>